St Peter's
by LadyPureblood
Summary: Severus gets poisoned and is forced, by damned Dumbledore, to spend four weeks in a muggle hospital to recover. Bored stiff but relishing the time away from nosy brattish little monsters, he meets, or rather can't seem to get rid of, a certain nosy brattish little 6 six-year-old patient who seems completely immune to Severus' increasingly dour mood.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing but the clothes on my back.**

I got this idea after watching The Fall (which I **highly** recommend to those who haven't seen it) and to those who have I'm sure you'll notice the resemblance.

**Enjoy!**

One

Severus absolutely despised muggle hospitals. They smelt too strongly of antiseptic that burned your nostrils, they had no source of entertainment-you quite literally had to sit there and wait to get better- the staff made him question whether any dim-witted, lethargic dunderhead could enrol in medical training and the food, _merlin the food_.

So, while Severus was laying there on a hard white bed, waiting to get better, he thought being forced to stay in this miserable place was rather an extreme and unfair punishment.

Admittedly, it was with embarrassment and great shame to confess that he, a potions professor, had very nearly been poisoned to death. By non other than the alarmingly dull Amycus Carrow at that.

It was rather a rare poison, tasteless and fatal if left for an hour without consuming the antidote. Severus hadn't realised he had taken the poison a good half an hour after he had drank his noxious tea, when his legs started to ever so slightly stiffen. Under any normal circumstance, rather if an ordinary man had consumed the same tea, said man would be in a state of paralysis for three hours and forty-two minutes before it reached, and ultimately stopped, his heart.

However, these were not ordinary circumstances and Severus Snape was not an ordinary man, he knew the symptoms of almost every poison created and especially poisons created by his own hand.

Mortiferum Rigidum had taken him two months to plan and four months to create. He had never gotten to the Perfection phase, which is why the paralysis time wasn't a perfectly sound, rounded number. But it was his nonetheless and now begs the question, a question that he had been turning over in his mind for the past four days; just how on earth did that idiotic Carrow cretin manage to break past the wards of his personal lab and steal one of his very own potions? He had personally watched the man walk repeatedly headfirst into a ward, like a fly to a window.

And why did he try and kill him? Severus hadn't even seen the man since Voldemort's downfall five years earlier, thanks to that Potter brat. Severus just hoped to merlin that it didn't mean that the deranged megalomaniac had found a way to exist again and somehow knew of Severus' betrayal.

With his legs refusing to work for at least another three days, Severus believed he could have quite easily laid in that bed for a week without complain, but then his stomach just had to go and rebel against him. The antidote caused a nasty side-effect, something Severus wasn't aware of as he had never had need to take the antidote himself before, and now an ulcer was threatening to explode inside him which could cause rather problematic as he had no desire to die just yet. Thus, damned Dumbledore had insisted muggle remedies were far safer then magical ones to stop the risk of jarring the little beast and causing more damage. So the old man had sent him to this muggle hospital full of incompetent muggle healers for four weeks, even claiming he could "do with a rest, Severus."

Right then he didn't know whether he would have preferred Carrow to have succeeded if it meant staying here for the next three weeks and three days.

Without even his journals to entertain him, Severus spent as much time as he possibly could sleeping, pretending he was somewhere else and damning Dumbledore and Carrow to the deepest layers of hell.

"Are you hurt or are you sick?"

Severus jumped at a squeaky voice that was far too close for comfort and snapped open his eyes to see two giant green orbs hovering above him. With a strangled gasp he sat upright, causing a small body to loose their purchase on the bed and crash to the floor with a cry.

Severus hissed as his stomach protested over the sudden movement and the small figure picked them-self gingerly off the floor muttering a string of 'Ows' before fidgeting at the side of his bed. Severus suddenly realised the hovering green orbs were the too-large eyes belonging to a scrawny little boy who looked no older than about five, wearing too-large clothes with too-long messy black hair which was left to fall into his eyes. He sported the charming baby face maternal woman coo'd over, but his cheekbones were too sharp and his chin too pointed and he was just over the line of _too thin _and Severus was sure all the nurses just absolutely _loved _this little creature. His bony left arm was in a cast and sling that he kept swinging across his chest in a way that proved of forgotten pain or a desire to pro-long it's healing.

The boy watched and swung for a minute, seemingly unfazed by Severus' glare before asking again, "Are you hurt or are you sick?"

"What?" Severus snapped at the little monster.

"People who come here are here because they are hurt or they are sick, which one are you; hurt or sick?" He explained with all the logic and patience of a child trying to teach a younger child a valuable life lesson, more to feel cleverer than to help. Severus decided not to dignify the rugrat with an answer and turned away dismissively. He distracted himself with the struggle of raising himself higher up the bed and plumping up his pillows so he could sit up comfortably.

The boy obviously didn't get the hint. "I'm hurt. My arm broke."

"I can see that." Severus glared, aimed both at the boy and at himself for answering.

"Sooooo which are you?" The boy rocked back and forth on his heels and blinked, unnervingly curious, at the older man. His eyes flickered down over Severus, obviously trying to see if he could find a clue, a bandage or cast, to show the reason he was in the hospital.

Severus gave an almighty sigh before shifting his own eyes down at his body. "Both," he answered finally.

"Both? Why are you both?" The boy's interest was impossibly more piqued and Severus inwardly groaned.

He glared harder at the small boy and snapped, "What do you mean, why? I'm both because I'm both."

The little tyke shook his shaggy head, a small frown on his face, "No. Why-how are you both?"

Severus stared at the boy for a full two minutes before deciding feeling irritation aimed at someone other than himself, a senile headmaster and an idiotic sycophant was somewhat refreshing at this time and he reluctantly muttered, "Someone tried to poison me."

The child's eyes got impossibly wider and he moved towards Severus, leaning against the side of the bed. "_Poison_? Why? Didn't they like you?"

"Evidently not." Severus sneered, pointedly leaning away as the boy nodded sympathetically.

The little monster was actually pitying him!

The boy leaned ever closer and whispered conspiringly, "Were they bad?"

Severus shoved his face towards the child and bared his sharp yellowing teeth. "Maybe they tried to poison me because _I'm_ bad."

It didnt have the desired effect and the boy smiled as if Severus was the imbecilic child in the exchange and shook his head pityingly, "No, your not bad."

Severus blinked, snorted and leaned back against his pillows, giving the boy a side look. "And how could you possibly know that?"

"You don't look bad." He shrugged as if that was proof enough.

Severus raised a dark eyebrow and muttered, "I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree with you."

"No no, bad men are big and fat and have moustaches," he reasoned, holding his right arm out and around his body while his left failed tried to follow in a mimic of an obese person, puffing out his cheeks.

"I see." He nodded in a false show of over-agreement, sneering at the child before sending him one more glare and turning his attention towards the empty bed opposite his own.

"I'm sick too, but not because someone tried to poison me."

Severus glanced back at the child who was watching his feet as he stood on one leg then hopped to the other. "I thought you said you were hurt?"

The boy stilled on his left leg and frowned up at the dark man,"That was before I knew you could be both."

Severus opened his mouth to retort with a snide remark before decided not to waste his breath and turned back to aimlessly stare around the ward.

There were only two other occupants in this ward; an elderly gentleman who spend a lot of time either asleep or muttering to himself, and a middle-aged woman who hadn't woken up once since Severus had been admitted. He pondered, if she was in a coma why she wasn't in her own room, or if she just awoke when everyone else was asleep.

"Why did they try an' poison you?"

Severus clenched his teeth and mentally counted to ten.

"Are you going to die?"

He spun his dark head round to stare at the boy in outrage who looked far too blasé and was now inspecting Severus' bedside table. "What!? You don't ask someone-put that down this instant!"

Suddenly a voice called from the ward's open doors, "Harry, there you are!"

A young, pretty red-headed nurse trotted over to Severus' bed, smiling fondly at the little boy who grinned sheepishly up at her. "Don't bother the poor man," she smiled apologetically at Severus, "Sorry, he's a curious type."

Severus narrowed his eyes at her, "I noticed. Don't you have a separate ward for children patients?"

"Of course, it's right down the hall," she replied, holding out a hand for the small boy to take.

"And do you usually allow the little beasts to wander around as they see fit and disturb other, genuinely ill, patients?" Severus asked, snidely.

The nurse blinked up at the man, frowning slightly. She glanced down at the boy once before giving Severus a professional look. "No. Sorry sir, it wont happen again. Come on Harry, Dr Falton is looking for you."

With a small nod to Severus, she led the little boy from the bed. As they got to the door, the child looked back and gave Severus a small smile and a little wave, a waggle of short fingers. Severus' unimpressed look turned into a glower as he heard the little beast whisper loudly to his nurse, "Is he going to die?"

Severus growled and slumped back against his pillows, cursing Dumbledore and himself for entertaining the thought, just for a second, that he was going to have a child-free few weeks.

But mostly he cursed Dumbledore.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **wow guys, I really wasn't expecting so many to be interested in this, so that's fabulous, thankyou! Just to quickly say, as I have to most who reviewed, I really want to try and keep this as canon as I possibly can, under the circumstances, but I don't want to say any more because that would defeat the object...

* * *

Two

"Severus."

At the sound of his name Severus jerked awake and blinked up at familiar warm, twinkling blue eyes. Relief flooded through him at the prospect of company from someone other than irritable nurses who insisted on prodding and poking in delicate places he didn't appreciate being prodded and poked, and doctors who were '_sure his legs would start working again soon_'. As if they were trying to reassure him. As if they knew more about the situation than he did. As if they weren't oblivious muggles trying to heal something cause by magic. Severus had had to bite his tongue to stop himself from snapping something both offending and compromising.

Feigning ignorance over the effects of something he took months to create was a lot harder than he originally thought, and Severus had never been a man to enjoy an audience.

Feeling pathetically _pleased_ at his mentors appearance, Severus glared balefully at the old man and his stupid purple velvet suit and aggressively, and painfully, began shifting upright into a more dignified position. He batted irritably at Dumbledore's hands as he tried to assist.

Propped up and feeling less like a student in the hospital ward at Hogwarts, he cast a distasteful eye over Dumbledore's appearance with his long white hair tied back into a low ponytail and his beard tucked into the space between two silver buttons on his bright suit jacket. "You look ridiculous."

Dumbledore smiled and stroked a wrinkled hand down the soft material of his jacket, "I rather enjoy purple."

Severus frowned at the concept of someone _enjoying_ a colour when Dumbledore spoke in a soft voice, "How are you feeling, dear boy?"

Severus' glare intensified. "I'd feel a lot better if I was in St Mungo's. Or Hogwarts even! This place is hideous Headmaster, they have no idea what they're doing and as soon as I can walk I will be using the ability to walk straight out of here!"

Dumbledore gave the younger man a disappointed look, but his eyes were twinkling in amusement behind his spectacles, "Now Severus, there is no need to be rash-"

"I'm not being rash, Headmaster, I've had a _lot_ of time to think this through."

"Enough, my boy. You're not here for your legs, as you well know," Dumbledore gave Severus a hard stare over his glasses and the dark man sighed, resigned. "What have the doctors said?"

Severus narrowed his eyes at the old man, letting him know that he knew perfectly well what he was doing. Dumbledore knew exactly what the doctors had said, he was no doubt in regular contact with them, even if this was the first time he had come to visit Severus. By asking he was letting Severus feel like he was in control of the situation, which was of course as far away from the truth as it possibly could be.

At Dumbledore's unyielding look, he chose to humour him, "Same as before. Minimal movements until the antibiotics rid the severity of the ulcer. Which will take up to three weeks."

"Indeed minimal movements Severus, so no storming about as soon as your legs get better," he twinkled.

Severus grumbled but said nothing. Dumbledore patted his hand fondly.

Severus scowled. "Have you heard anything from the other side? Are we any closer to finding out why exactly Carrow tried to kill me?"

The old man shook his head, "I am afraid not Severus, but do not dwell on it my boy. All will be well." He smiled encouragingly and started straightening the sheets by Severus' legs.

Severus stared at his mentor for a long moment. Fury began creeping up inside him. By the sounds of it, Dumbledore wasn't even _trying_ to find out why Severus had been poisoned. He spluttered for a moment before exploding, "How can you be so...so unconcerned? I could have died!"

He watched as Dumbledore's eyebrows rose and his hands stilled on the blanket. Severus felt the familiar wave of jealousy and resentment wash over him and he hated himself for feeling it. Hated this man for making him feel it still, now when he was no longer a student wanting justice for a 'prank gone wrong' and not getting it because this man cared more about his golden gryffindors then he did about him-about all the slytherins.

"Do I really mean so little to you?" He hadn't meant to say it out loud, his voice full of venom, but he was tired and angry and in pain and just wanted to go home. He felt a sick satisfaction when Dumbledore's face paled and he slowly placed his hands into his lap.

Dumbledore gazed sadly down at his hands for a moment, and when he looked back up at his younger companion his face was so full of regret and sorrow Severus felt slightly ill. "I am sorry that thought would even cross your mind, Severus. I care for you very deeply, as I truly believed you knew-"

Severus couldn't stand it. He coughed slightly and muttered, "Yes, yes enough. I didn't..." He shook his head, trailing off and wishing he hadn't said anything.

Dumbledore leaned forward in his seat, eyes serious, "I assure you, you are my highest concern, my boy. Allow me to worry about it, while you just worry about getting better."

Severus swallowed. He had never gotten used to Dumbledore's concern and parental attitude towards him the past few years. It certainly hadn't always been there, and he didn't quite trust it, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Thank you, Severus."

Severus glanced away from sad blue eyes and cleared his throat, "And what will become of my classes when school resumes in a week's time?"

"I have a substitute prepared for your absence, Severus. I do believe he will be more than adequate for the time being." Dumbledore smiled again, although his usual twinkle was still absent from his eyes.

Severus sighed and closed his eyes from the sight for a moment, "I trust you, Albus."

"Thank you, my boy."

* * *

After visiting hours were over and Dumbledore had left, Severus sat and stared at the opposite wall, thinking.

Regardless of what Dumbledore said and what he had promised, he couldn't simply stop thinking about Carrow and his motives.

After Severus had quickly downed the antidote of Mortiferum Rigidum, he had stumbled around in his storeroom trying to stave off exhaustion long enough to cast a signature spell. Carrow's smokey figure had risen out from his wand a second before Severus had collapsed to the floor.

He would readily admit that it unnerved him a great deal at the thought of Carrow entering his home with such apparent ease. If he could do it, who else could? Severus had thought the wards would have made even Dumbledore himself hesitate, but apparently a baboon could prance past them as if they were nothing but air.

Unless, which was possibly even more unnerving, Carrow wasn't quite as dim-witted as he let on.

"Sir!"

Severus snapped his head round at the indignant voice at the side of his bed that apparently had called for him a fair few times before Severus had noticed. Severus growled at the small dark haired boy from the day before, cast and all. Annoyed at being interrupted from his musings, he snarled, "You again! I thought your nurse said you weren't allowed in here!"

The boy shook his head, unconcerned, "She never said that. Who tried to poison you?" He lifted a leg up onto the bed as he spoke and began trying to haul himself up onto the mattress with only one arm.

"What?" Severus shook his head once to clear it from the abrupt subject change and threw up an arm, "No. Down."

The boy instantly lowered himself back to the floor and simply dragged the chair closer and perched on that instead, "Who tried to poison you?"

"They didn't _try_ to poison me, they _did_ poison me, idiot child."

"Who poisoned you?" He watched Severus through his eyelashes as he chewed on a thumbnail.

Severus felt a headache coming on. He shut his eyes tight and pinched the bridge of his nose, finding it hard to concentrate with the more pressing matters on his mind. He opened his eyes to see the child still staring, chewing and swinging his short legs, toes barely scuffing the floor. "What do you want?"

"I want to know who tried-who poisoned you," he answered patiently.

Severus huffed and shifted painfully on the bed, "I do believe that is none of your business."

The child pulled his thumb away from his mouth and gave Severus a thoughtful look, "Is it a secret?"

Severus rubbed at his temples as his head gave a particularly painful pound. "Don't you have some little irritable friends to play with?" he snarled.

The brat simply shook his head, "Nope."

Severus didn't understand the boys interest. He supposed a dark, broody patient with stories of poison would be rather intriguing to a muggle child, but Severus had made it perfectly clear he didn't want company and yet the child was still here, watching Severus unrelentingly. Severus stared at him. The boy blinked back.

The little brat scrunched up his nose and raised his right hand to scrub at it. "What's your name?" he asked.

Severus looked away from the unnatural being. He wondered at the child's age. He had originally thought maybe four or five years old, judging by the child's stature, but he was far too well-spoken to be any younger than six or seven.

"I'm Harry."

His clothes were blatantly hand-me-downs, so that proved he didn't come from wealth. But his accent was refined, or as refined as it could be for a six year old, that spoke of good education or persistent parents. He pondered if the child had come from one of those penniless backgrounds where the parents gave everything they had into their children's education, desperate for them to make a better life for themselves. Severus scowled, _his_ parents certainly hadn't cared about making a better life for him. Well, his father anyhow had been quite happy to let him rot in poverty along side him.

He remembered, vaguely, nights of forgotten laughter and affection when his father had gone to the pub and his mother had taken out her hidden potion set and explained to him all the different ingredients she had collected over the years.

"Ser-Sev-Sevar-Sevus-"

Severus glanced up to see the child standing at the end of his bed, his chart between his small hands and squinting down at it.

"Severus, my name is Severus! Now put that down!" he spluttered in outrage. The audacity of this child was something he was unused to. The students in his lessons were far too terrified for such cheek. But this child...

The boy looked up at him and frowned, "Sev'rus?"

"S-e-v-e-r-u-s. Are you slow? Put that back!" Severus snapped.

The boy hastily placed the chart back into its rightful place and hopped back over to the chair, "No, I'm six."

Severus glared at the child before casting his eyes around his bed. He had demanded Dumbledore bring him something to read when he next visited, and at the time had expressed anything would do. He now hoped Dumbledore wouldn't take that too seriously and bring him a book on knitting patterns or the tale of Babbity Rabbity or some such nonsense.

"Severus." The child sounded out his name, a look of concentration on his small face.

"Well done." Severus sneered sarcastically.

"Severus. Severus is a weird name." He decided.

Severus frowned indignantly, "No it's not."

The boy gave him a side-long look, raised eyebrow and all, "Well I've never heard of it."

"Maybe it's you who's weird then." Severus sneered nastily.

The boy nodded in agreement. He then held out his small right hand and gave a toothy grin, "It's nice to meet you Severus. I'm Harry," he said, adopting a voice that would make the Malfoy's proud.

Severus stared blankly at the hand, then at the impossibly persistent little boy, "You said."

He wiggled his fingers at the older man, "Aren't you going to shake my hand?"

Severus raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"You have to shake hands when you meet someone, it's manners." The brat explained, hand still outstretched.

Severus glared at him, "Don't you think it's a bit late for that?" But he took the small hand anyway, gave it one quick shake and hastily snatched his hand back.

The child watched him thoughtfully for a moment before, "Your not going to die, Nurse Emma said that you weren't going to die, so you should be happy."

Severus wanted to shake the little rat. "Instead of what, exactly?" he asked, dangerously.

The boy simply raised his eyebrows and bit his bottom lip in reply.

"By all means, if you've got something to say, Boy, spit it out!" Severus exclaimed impressively, noting the small flinch at the particular endearment.

The boy bowed his head in a first show of shyness before glancing at Severus through his dark lashes once more, "Well...you are a bit..."

Severus glared, knowing what was coming.

"...sad." The boy finished, lowering his eyes again. Severus stared. Or not, he thought.

"Sad? _Sad_? I'm not _sad, _I'm bored and irritated and I'm not allowed to leave this godforsaken place!" Severus shouted, uncomfortably angry and not sure why.

The brat raised his head again, "Why are you irri-irritated?" he asked, stumbling slightly over the word.

"Because an annoying, pestering brat won't leave me alone!" He spat at the child.

The child bit his lip again, but this time it seemed he was trying to hold back a grin.

"Why did that person poison you, Sev'rus?"

"Merlin grant me patience," Severus muttered under his breath. "Why are you in here, hm? Surly if it was just a broken arm you would be at home right now?" he snapped instead.

The boy was suitably distracted and nodded his head, "The doctors keep doin' tests on me so I must be sick too."

"What's wrong with you?" Severus asked, stifling a yawn and glancing at the clock and wishing the boy would just go to bed.

The child shrugged, "I think it's because I have spongy bones because I heard them talking when they thought I was sleeping," he said before adding in a hasty afterthought, "I wasn't eavesdropping!"

Severus raised an eyebrow, "I doubt that. Spongy bones?"

"They break easy," he explained, scratching at his cast

Severus rolled his eyes, "Oh, _soft_ bones you mean.

The boy frowned at him, "No. Spongy. Like a sponge," he insisted, looking at Severus as if he were idiotic.

"The term is _soft bones_, you imbecile." Severus replied heatedly.

The boy looked ready to argue when he heard footsteps approaching the ward. He jumped up off the chair and dragged it back to its original position. Severus gave him a knowing look, the child's panic proving he wasn't allowed to be there. And yet he came back. He gave Severus a small smile and hasty wave as he galloped towards the open doors, "Goodnight Sev'rus! See you tomorrow!"

"I hope not. And it's Severus!" The dour man shouted back at the small retreating figure just seconds before a nurse bustled in to turn out the lights.

He lay there in the dark, wondering why he was allowing the child to call him anything other than 'Sir'.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Thankyou so much for all your reviews and interest in this story, seriously, loveyouguys. Sorry i've taken so long to update-have a million excuses I could say but i'm sure you'd rather just get on with the story...

Beware the grammar mistakes and gross sentence structures. I try.

* * *

Three

"Remarkable, just remarkable."

Dr Falton was probably the most tolerable of the medical staff Severus had been subjected to as of yet. He was old and grandfatherly, but with the experience and no-nonsense attitude of a man who had worked the wards for many years.

Although, his tolerance of the man may have been a side effect of the relief he felt of having working legs again. Albeit his movements weren't as smooth as he had hoped.

Severus didn't know what to expect that morning, and fully functioning legs certainly wasn't one of them.

He awoke with a strange sensation of feeling 'whole' and had a short pang of panic at the intense awareness of his lower body before chastising himself at the ridiculousness of it. He blamed it on fatigue.

Of course, the medical staff were baffled. Severus didn't give them an explanation over his paralysis, simply insisting that he had collapsed and had awoken to find his legs in that state. They were rather skeptical over his unconcerned reaction, but Severus was hardly going burst into a hysterical fit, screaming that he 'can't feel my legs! I can't feel my legs!' just for the sake of an audience. After a few days, however, they seemed to think his calm stiff-upper-lip manner was just his way of dealing with a stressful situation and relented, throwing him sympathetic and pitying looks when they didn't think he would notice. He pretended not to notice them hesitating behind doors and curtains, as if trying to hear his private distress. Severus allowed them to believe what they wanted, it made no difference either way and anyway, he was sure about half of the staff realised he was just another moody patient after at least the fourth day.

"Remarkable."

"Yes, you said." Severus intoned dryly. Tolerance, of course, didn't mean he had to be deliberately amiable. It wasn't as if this particular recovery was induced by the mans vast medical knowledge.

The elderly doctor ignored his patient's reply with practiced ease and took a step back, watching as Severus held himself up on two shaky legs unassisted. He nodded for Severus to take another step forward.

"And one more step...excellent. Well done," he praised in exuberance, patting Severus' arm before helping him sit back on the bed. Severus scowled at the floor, panting in enervation as sweat cooled on the back of his neck. He was trembling and aching and embarrassed, it was like learning to walk all over again and he hated it.

"Well, Mr Snape, I have to say you are one very lucky man," said the doctor, writing something on Severus' chart, "I'm still not certain what caused your temporary paralysis so I still want to continue with some more tests."

Severus inwardly groaned. Why couldn't the man just let him be? His legs were working now, why keep poking them for a reaction he was never going to get? Severus refused to entertain the thought of how he would react to the same situation, there was no way he would have been able to leave so many questions unanswered. But admitting that meant admitting he was a hypocrite and Severus had enough unpleasant titles for himself as it was.

"There's really no need. They are working and will only get better with time, I'm certain." Severus waved a hand dismissively.

The doctor gave Severus a tight smile, "I'd feel better if I knew what I was dealing with. As should you," he stared hard at the younger man for a moment, "Now, no over-doing it. No more than an hour of walking a day, I don't want you to cause harm to yourself while we don't know the cause for this was in the first place. Also, too much exertion could cause your ulcer to burst resulting in emergency surgery and we don't want that now do we?" He gave Severus a look as if he knew perfectly well that was exactly what Severus was planning to do. His patient glared back defiantly.

Dr Falton raised his bushy eyebrows and waited until Severus sagged down slightly against his pillows before smiling crookedly, "I'll have one of the nurses bring you a wheelchair. If you need anything, just buzz." He indicated to the nurses call button on the side of the bed and with a nod, turned on his heel and left the ward.

Severus watched the back of his white coat with a disgruntled frown, thinking this _must_ be the doctor Dumbledore was in contact with by his familiar patient and unrelentingly slightly-amused demeanour. Which meant he probably knew exactly why Severus had been in a state of paralysis, and the tests he was subjecting him to was simply for the amusement of the two old meddlesome men.

_They had probably been friends for years_, Severus thought bitterly.

Dinner was situated just before the day's second visiting hours. Severus steadfastly believed this was because it would make the patients more groggy and less likely to cause a conflict when visited by the reluctant stragglers who had popped by the hospital last minute on their way home from work.

He glared down hatefully at his plate of microwaved slop. Growing up with a muggle father meant he had had his fair share of microwaved dinners in his time, but living in Hogwarts and then his own home had allowed him to develop his palate and he resolvedly refused to eat anything other than the best. When he could help it.

He took a bite before shoving the plate to the other side of the table-tray in disgust. He'd rather like to funnel it down Carrows thick neck.

He looked restlessly around the ward, watching a nurse struggling to feed the elderly patient a few beds away. He could make out soft murmurs of encouragement and he wrinkled his nose slightly. He glanced over at the wheelchair to the right of his bed and reached out for it, fingers not quite reaching the leather armrest. Severus could feel himself teetering off the bed and hastily pulled himself upright with a growl. How he wished Dumbledore hadn't locked his wand away in the bedside cabinet. Although, originally he had wanted to take it away with him, "The temptation will be great, Severus, trust me" but Severus was having none of it. He was ill and vulnerable, there was no way he was allowing anyone to take away his wand. The cabinet door could be opened with a simple wand-less incantation, but Dumbledore had forbidden him to reach for it under any circumstance except an emergency. He wouldn't have put it past the old man to have put some sort of alarm on the door that alerted him the second Severus opened it.

Then again, he never said anything about wand-less magic. It was almost untraceable by the Ministry, especially if it was something small and insignificant. Severus just had to make sure no one noticed, which was easy enough as the only other occupants of the large room were a comatose, a senile old man and a distracted nurse with her back to him.

He glanced over at the nurse again. With his eyes trained on her, he raised his right hand and muttered a weak summoning spell. He felt the chair wheel slowly into his palm. There, easy enough. He smiled to himself, feeling suddenly a little less helpless as he manoeuvred his weak legs over the side of the bed.

Getting into the chair was easy enough, with his legs still weak but supportive enough to carry him the two steps over to the seat. Severus would rather have gone for a walk, and felt that was probably what his legs needed to gain their strength quicker, but he was rather tired and thus didn't want to cause a fuss with the doctors. And so he wheeled out of the ward, leaving his half-full plate behind.

His trek around the entire floor was blessedly uneventful, and he felt sufficiently lighter at being somewhere other than the bed he had been detained in for the past week. The sun was already setting when he set off and the pink sky washed over his pale face as he passed the floor-to-ceiling windows. As he wheeled around he began to realise just how large the hospital was, the one floor he was resided in took almost fifteen minutes to get from the east wing, where Severus was staying, to the opposite west wing.

As Severus was hovering by the lifts, contemplating whether to explore another floor, visitors started taking up the space in the halls as they made their way to specific wards. Deciding to take a trip outside when the sun was up, he began wheeling back, scowling at passerbys who gave him pitying looks.

When he came across the children's ward he was at first surprised that he hadn't noticed it on his journey to the wing and then surprised at how far away it was from his own, almost on the other side of the hospital.

He slowed down as he passed the door, watching mothers fuss and father sniff impressively over their poorly darlings. _Merlin it was distasteful_. Severus was about to speed up when a familiar scruffy black head caught his eye. He watched the boy sitting cross-legged on a bed and scribbling away in a colouring book with his tongue sticking out of one corner his mouth, a look of deep concentration on his small face that contrasted with the manic movements of his uninjured hand. He seemed to either not notice or not care that he was the only child without visitors crowding his bed, too absorbed in his book. Severus decided to leave him to it, not wanting to encourage the brat to visit him by 'visiting' the brat in return. As he turned away, he saw the nurse from a couple of days before, Nurse Emma the child had called her if he remembered correctly, leaning against the door frame also watching the boy. But unlike Severus' scowl, she had a small sad smile on her face which she then addressed to Severus as she turned to look at him. Rolling his eyes and not wanting to be there when the child's parents arrived to shower him with more small sad smiles like his Nurse Emma, Severus rolled on.

When Severus got back to his ward, there was a lone man sitting by the bed of the comatose woman, his hand in her unresponsive one and face lined with worry.

Severus turned away. Not wanting to get back into the bed and desperate for a proper wash he wheeled over to the adjoining shower room at the end of the ward. He knew Dr Falton wouldn't approve of him bathing unassisted, but Severus had had enough of hovering nurses who kept sticking their head into the bathroom as he tried to wash himself with a sink full of soapy water. Severus was a proud man, his legs were now working, moderately speaking, and he was going to have a nice long bath.

He took a towel and a clean pair of hospital-issued pyjamas from the large airing cupboard and wheeled into the spacious bathroom, taking great pleasure in being able to lock the door behind him for the first time in a week.

In the end, his bath only lasted about fifteen minutes, having grown bored and sleepy. He stumbled only once as he climbed out, catching himself on the towel rack. But all in all, he was rather pleased with himself.

Leaving his dirty clothes in the washing basket in the corner of the room he wheeled out, clean and pink, his hair still damp and feeling like he had had a productive day.

He wasn't surprised to see Dumbledore sitting by his bed when he got back, eyes twinkling as Severus drew nearer.

"You're looking well my boy, so glad to see you out and about," he smiled in delight as Severus wheeled opposite him and set the brakes on the chair. Although he was rather exhausted by the strenuous day he was rather reluctant to attempted to get into bed, knowing his legs would tremble terribly now that his exhaustion had hit and not wanting Dumbledore to witness his struggles. "How are your legs?"

"Working." Severus replied, letting out a long breath as leaned back in the chair.

"But weak?" Dumbeldore asked, eyeing Severus' wheelchair pointedly.

Severus grunted, "Yes. But not for long, I'm sure."

"You're sure?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow speculatively.

Severus gave him a hard look, "I'm sure." he repeated firmly.

"Marvellous," the old man nodded happily, clapping his hands together, "I can't stay long, I just came by to see how your legs were doing and to drop off those books you asked for," he fished out a small stack of volumes impossibly from within his painfully blue suit jacket and placed them on the bedside table, "I hope they suffice." He gave Severus a wink and stood up.

Severus cast a quick glance at the books, catching one familiar title 'Rare Potion Ingredients and Where to Find Them' and gave a small sigh of relief before holding out a hand to stall the headmaster.

"Albus, any news-"

"No, dear boy. Rest, rest." He flapped his hands like a harried housewife and with a pat to Severus' shoulder, was gone.

Severus gave a great sigh and flopped back against his seat. Seems he was left alone to ponder the predicament he found himself in again.

Too tired to let himself get too frustrated over Dumbledores usual obscurity, he heaved himself up onto the bed and settled against the pillows, running his hands through his damp hair. He picked up the stack of books from his bedside table and flicked through them, glancing up briefly as the comatose woman's male visiter made his leave, head bowed and eyes deadened.

There were two of his favourite volumes on potion making, his most recent journal (he wasn't even going to try and work out how Dumbledore knew which one to collect-hoping it was just a lucky guess) a suspiciously romantic-looking novel he didn't recognise the name of and at the bottom of the pile was none other then the colourful cover of Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump.

"Oh, you're hilarious." Severus muttered dryly as he shoved the book back onto his bedside table. He opened his journal and read the latest few entries, experiments he never got to finish and errands he never got to run. He jotted down a few notes, giving a detailed description of his symptoms after consuming Mortiferum Rigidum.

A quiet shuffling sound by the door made him pause and glance up in time to see a dark head jerk out back of sight. Severus smirked slightly and continued writing, pointedly ignoring the shuffling again as the dark headed creature spied on him from behind the doorframe.

When the brat started absently tapping a quiet rhythm against the wood, Severus spoke, still writing but noticing the child's startled jump from the corner of his eye, "Your powers of subtle observation are embarrassingly dismal at best and utterly undesirable."

There was a long pause while the boy no doubt debated whether or not to reveal himself. "Pardon?" eventually came the reply.

Severus glanced up at the child still half hidden behind the doorframe, "You're terrible at spying," he clarified.

He watched in vague amusement as the child's face screwed up in indignation and he stepped out from his hiding place, "I am not! No one _ever_ sees me when I'm spying on them," he declared before thinking back on his words with a frown, "And I wasn't spying, I don't spy. I was hiding."

"Well, obviously those who you spy-sorry_ 'hide'_-from are dim witted buffoons if they don't notice your frankly appalling efforts."

The boy let out a startled giggle before biting his lip and padding over to Severus' bed.

"No, I am a good hider," he murmured stubbornly as he drew nearer. His eyes lit up when he spotted the wheelchair and all but scrambled over to it, reaching out but freezing just before his fingers made contact and he blinked up at Severus through his dark fringe, positively trembling in excitement. "May I please...?" he wriggled his fingers and leaned closer to the chair, but still not allowing himself to touch.

Severus raised an eyebrow, not understanding children's playful pleasure over medical crutches they did not need. He waved a hand dismissively and returned back to his notes.

He ignored the small squeal of delight and hurried 'Thank you' as the boy jumped into the chair, which soon turned into a sound of disappointment when he found the wheels stuck and unmovable.

"You need to take the brakes off." Severus muttered absently.

He got lost within the realms of his mind, scratching out corrections and creating equations that needed to be tested as the child rolled the chair slowly in circles.

"Why do you have this?"

"So I can move around, obviously."

"Are your legs still broken?"

Severus scowled down at the inky pages. "No. Not really. Be quiet." he replied shortly.

"If they're not broken anymore, why do you need to have wheelchair to move around?"

Severus let out a frustrated huff through his nose and glared and the child's back as he swayed the chair from left to right. "They were never broken you impertinent brat. Did I not tell you to be quiet?"

The boy slowly turned back around, face a mixture of shame and desperate restraint. Severus raised his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes challengingly. The boy bit his lip.

"Why-"

"Quiet!"

Severus went back to his notes. He steadfastly ignored the little beast as he slowly wheeled the chair right over to Severus' bedside and leaned over to him conspiringly. "Did your legs stop working because remember how you were poisoned?" he whispered.

Severus turned his head to glower at the boy. The sentence didn't even make sense! Of course he remembered! The child began to slowly retreat out of Severus' personal space, eyes wide as he decided whatever was in Severus' expression wasn't worth the wait for an answer and he wheeled off again.

Severus shoved his book closer to himself with a sniff, reading the same line once again before taking his pen to paper once more. He wrote a large paragraph on what exactly he'd like to do to Carrow when he saw the man and was halfway through planning the desired symptoms of a new improved blood boiling potion when something smashed into the side of his bed, causing the muggle biro he was forced to use break off course harshly through a small list of ingredients. Severus gripped the pen tightly in his hand and inhaled deeply. He slowly raised his head, his face arranged into a death glare as he tried to stop himself from screaming out at the irritating thing before him. The child was sitting to his left, somehow having managed to manoeuvre the chair with little difficulty when technically only having the power of one workable arm before inevitably loosing control and crashing into the bed. His face was white and expressionless except for his wide eyes and pursed lips.

"I'm sorry." he breathed.

"Out. Of. The chair." Severus intoned quietly, deadly.

The child didn't hesitate and quickly stood and moved around to the back of the chair, putting a larger distance between the two of them, his eyes still glued to Severus as if watching a wild animal.

Severus swallowed back a few dozen curses a child under ten should never hear and with his jaw clenched painfully, he looked down at the page. The line was irritating but didn't make the list undecipherable and he closed the journal with a snap and a tired sigh.

"Do you want me to go?" the boy's soft question went unanswered as Severus placed the book down on the covers.

"Aren't your parents worrying where you are?"

"No. They're dead forever."

Severus looked up at the boy with a frown and noticed he was still standing stock-still behind the chair. He scowled, "What are you doing hovering like a fly? Come sit here will you." He indicated sharply to the empty, wheel-less chair as the boy took a tentative step towards it, watching Severus' face intensely for a moment before grinning suddenly and enthusiastically hopping into it.

"What are you writing?" he asked in an annoyingly childish voice.

"Nothing that concerns you."

"What are you reading?" the child asked, glancing at the book on the bedside table and the small pile on the bed.

"Nothing that concerns you." Severus repeated.

"What-"

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Severus snapped irritably as he picked up one of his potion volumes.

He was flicking through the already-memorised index when he realised the child hadn't answered. He looked up to see the boy with his head bowed, face hidden. "I asked you a question," he snapped impatiently.

"Not meant to ask questions," came the muffled reply.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Oh, _I'm_ not allowed to ask questions, but _you_ are perfectly entitled to ask whatever pops into your head, no matter how mundane?" he sneered.

The boy raised his head with a defiant gleam in his eye. "I'm sorry I asked lots of questions I just forgot because I was playing with the chair." he said in a rush, his voice snappish and contrasting with the apology.

Severus rolled his eyes and went back to his book. "You won't learn anything unless you ask questions," he muttered dismissively, "_Relevant_ questions. Unlike irritatingly prying questions." Severus added with a scowl.

The boy watched him with a small frown on his face, looking confused for a moment before Severus turned away.

Severus didn't know why he was even bothering to attempt to read with the incessant whelp twitching for attention every two seconds, but by merlin he tried.

"Sev'rus-" the boy bagan hesitantly.

"Here. Read this," Severus grabbed the children's story book Dumbledore had left from bedside table and shoved it into the brats small hands. "Now go away."

The boy stared down at the book in awe, holding it out like something precious. "What, like take it with me?" he asked in wonder.

"Yes, now leave me be boy!"

The child gave an indecently massive grin. "Oh wow. Thank you Sev'rus!" He took off at a run, calling a loud "Goodnight!" as he sprinted down the corridor back to his ward.

Severus leaned back against his pillows with a loud groan. If the child wasn't careful, he'd fall and break his other arm.

His eyes burned like they do when he had been reading for too long and Severus scowled at his body's betrayal and the unfairness of it. He stacked all the books onto his side table and rubbed his eyes tiredly with a yawn.

He settled down against the pillows, feeling the day's activities pull him gently into a dark haze of slumber. As he felt himself slipping, his thoughts whirled around potion ingredients and poison and long walks in the sun and bloody revenge and bloody kids that he just couldn't seem to get away from.


End file.
